We’ve recently learned of, and have added to kamaainabackroads.com, a new widget that can be added to websites and blogs as part of a larger effort to reduce global emissions caused by the use of the Internet. The effort has been embraced by - and it in use at - some of the largest and progressive corporations around, including Reuters, The LA Times, CNET, Scientific American and the Boston Globe.
This published Q&A by the widget’s two developers, Alex Wissner-Gross and Tim Sullivan, helps put it into perspective.

What is the problem the widget addresses?

CO2Stats monitors and then completely offsets (for free) the carbon emissions of a web site or blog. Each time one uses the Internet, one is using the electricity of both one’s personal computer and a remote server. Large amounts of fossil fuels are used to generate that electricity. Consequently, when those fuels are burned, carbon is emitted and once it reaches our atmosphere it contributes to global warming. Most Internet users do not realize that the Internet (and devices connected to it) emit over 100 billion pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, and Internet-capable devices account for approximately 2% of global emissions.

How does this widget work?

The widget calculates the total emissions of a web site or blog by summing the emissions created by a web site’s users’ computers, and then completely offsets those emissions for free. We first calculated the global average rate of carbon emissions due to the electricity consumption of a single personal computer interacting with a server (17mg of CO2/sec). We then calculate for each member site or blog the summed emissions of all the visiting clients to that website, taking into account the amount of time they spend on the website. The CO2Stats Project currently pays to offset those emissions by investing in carbon offsets from Sustainable Travel International, and we hope to find sponsors that will allow us to continue to offset the Internet.

Whose idea was the widget and how did you go about developing it?

We were watching a talk that the venture capitalist John Doerr delivered at the TED Conference (Tech, Entertainment, Design). During the talk, he spoke passionately about our environmental crisis and his generation’s debt to the environment. By the end, he began to cry. Ironically, we realized that the very computers on which his speech was being broadcast were contributing to the problem that he was lamenting. One of the central messages of his speech was that individuals matter enormously; they can make a tremendous impact on improving our environmental crisis. His speech inspired us to make our own contribution to greentech, and we thought that a widget that monitored the Internet’s carbon emissions and allowed people to offset them could be quite valuable.

What else do you advise people who use the Internet to do to use less energy or in other way help the environment?

Of course, we would first like to make everyone aware of their web site’s impact, and we hope that even those without web sites or blogs will bring our free widget to the attention of their companies who can implement it on corporate web sites. Our goal is ambitious: to make the entire Internet carbon neutral! Ultimately, we recommend investing in products that can monitor their own carbon footprints.

Do you think it takes creative ideas such as your widget for the world to ultimately make the most beneficial changes for the environment?

Absolutely! As John Doerr said, individuals matter enormously! Two graduate students from Stanford started a part-time project to improve Internet searches and today we have Google! Two undegraduates from Harvard decided to create a programming language, and today we have Microsoft! We live in a brave new world, and tomorrow, the greatest impact will be made by individuals who are able to grow small, creative ideas in greentech into projects that will be our planet’s environmental salvation.